i think you will find the BH to be remarkably easy with the training you have put into your dogs! it's a test of basic obedience skills/knowledge, control of the dog, and temperament. if your dog messes up a position here or there, or comes to heel instead of to front, you will be fine--the judge will likely make note of it in your critique afterward and that's about it.

in the traffic portion of the test, you walk in a line past the biker/jogger/and moving vehicle, but the neutral dog part is done on a tie out and you can indeed put your dog into a sit stay or a down stay if you choose. but even if he breaks the sit/down as long as he does not behave aggressively toward the neutral dog, you're fine. they do ask the neutral dog handler to be about 5 feet from the dog, too, which makes it pretty easy.

the hardest part is probably the "crowd scene," because it can be a bit claustrophobic. the dog is on leash, and the judge asks you to bring him into a circle of people. you talk to the judge while the dog waits quietly by your side, then they ask you for a sit or a down and the crowd is asked to close in a bit around the dog. it's not super tight, they don't touch the dog, but it's something to practice just so your dog knows it's not an alarming situation.

honestly, i was a nervous wreck about doing this because i've never competed in anything before, but i think for you it should be cake!

I'm glad you told me about the crowd test...definitely something I would need to work on with Cy - we know he feels about crowds Nisha is fine with that stuff (luckily)...I was just more afraid of failing b/c they've been trained to come to front, etc...

Even with Cy's dog aggression, as long as he is in obedience mode, there won't be an issue...

no, even that's pretty easy! if your dog is chipped, they wave the chip reader over the dog while you hold his/her head. but no contact from strangers.

and if the dog has a tattoo, you show the judge by folding the ear back and the judge just looks, or if the tattoo is on the belly, you can hold the dog up and show it or have the dog roll over and show it(ha, easier said than done!). the judge will look but not touch. and i have to be honest, at the last 2 trials i've been at, the club secretary was in charge of making sure it was done so they didn't even bring the judge in on it. which made it even easier because the judge wasn't really paying attention as long as someone was going through the motions.

this is how it works with DVG, at least. USA might have a slightly different approach . . . the BH routine and rules are pretty much the same, but the judges might be stricter about things like tattoo/chip stuff. i've never been to a USA trial. i do know that USA, unlike DVG, requires that a handler who has never done a BH before take a written test--when i heard that, i knew i made the right decision going with DVG!

you can still trial in a DVG trial with a USA scorebook, but I think you have to get it stamped first or something . . . there's some odd rule or other about that. i know that the alexandria trial we did the BH in had a handful of USA people trialing.

you can still trial in a DVG trial with a USA scorebook, but I think you have to get it stamped first or something . . . there's some odd rule or other about that. i know that the alexandria trial we did the BH in had a handful of USA people trialing.

Looks like I had it backward--it's DVG that requires you to get your scorebook stamped if you trial USA. USA, it seems, does not require that.

I guess how it works is that if you're a USA member, you can enter any performance event put on by DVG and it will be recognized. But any event that's put on to prove breed worthiness (conformation, for example) needs to be done under a USA. WUSV, or FCI -approved judge.